Interior Minister of France Gerald Darmanin has said that the ‘foreign families’ who object to the derogatory caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad being shown to pupils in the schools could face deportation.
While speaking to a local radio station, the minister further added that the cartoons are protected under the constitutionally protected free speech. Those opposing the teachers showing their pupils the caricatures will be sued. Darmanin said that the foreign families should note that they could face deportation during the prosecution for committing a crime.
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This comes as the religion-related violence surged in the last few months after the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty, who showed the caricatures to his students during a class on freedom of expression. His actions resulted in his death, which the whole French nation mourned.
In response to the incident, French President Emmanuel Macron has launched an extensive witch hunt against the country’s Muslim community after his remarks characterizing the Muslim faith as an extremist ideology that needs to be contained immediately.
Furthermore, President Macron also supported the publishing of derogatory cartoons by a local French newspaper, Charlie Hebdo. However, several Muslim nongovernmental organizations, associations, and mosques that criticized the French government’s crackdown against the Muslim community; have been closed by the authorities recently.
Even though the French government is protecting the derogatory caricatures under the umbrella of freedom of speech, many local newspapers, magazines, and blog sites have been changing their content and removing articles on the orders of the French government.
Reportedly, since the beginning of this month, the incumbent government has somehow managed to muscle its way in and significantly affect the actions of some of the well-known media outlets, including Associated Press, Politico, Financial Times, and Le Monde.
